Feels like the first time
Pro-Gun Progressive went packing for the first time and describes how it made him feel:
Having people stand behind me in line made me hyper-aware of the proximity of someone else to my gun. Carrying, I noticed, brings your alertness level to the maximum; you pay attention to everyone’s moves, everyone’s posture, and where every other person is in relation to you. You just do.
I’ve been carrying since handgun carry permits came out in Tennessee (1995ish, I think) and that feeling never goes away. But there will come a time after a while when you’ll feel strange when your gun is missing. The only similar feeling I can compare it to was the one day I made it to work and realized I forgot my wedding ring. You notice all day that it’s not there.
February 6th, 2006 at 11:19 am
I suppose there is a self-consciousness that some first-timers feel and I probably did, too. Not so much that other people were around me and all that — not in the I’m an undercover agent thing. Just that I had the small .38 in a hidden holster.
Like you, Uncle, now I feel naked without it. I have a heightened sense of being vulnerable if I’m not carrying. Being small, I tend to skip with the holster and just throw something in the pocket of my winter jacket, usually the .32 Tom Cat or S&W Airweight .38. When I AM carrying, I don’t think about it at all, haven’t for years. It’s just there like the car keys.
February 6th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Funny, I don’t feel much different whether carrying or not. But maybe that is because I’ve come to realize that “situational awareness” is your best first defense.
Well, and the fact that I can’t carry in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts where I work makes carrying a rare event for the majority of the time.
But that keeps my road rage levels down as well.
February 7th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Since I’ve always been an orange leve guy out in public anyway; I wont say carrying has made me more generally alert; but it definitely makes me more aware of physical proximity and presence.
I definitely feel naked without a gun; but I also feel somewhat circumscribed with it, as there are many places I need to be more carefulo entering, or simply cannot go without disarming myself
It’s funny, since I picked up the ridiculously small Kel-Tec P3AT, and a wallet syle holster; and started carrying everywhere legal, at all times, there has been an odd sense of increased freedom. Basically I am no logner trading off reduced safety, for not having to worry about my gun printing.